Lead Baker
Level 3 Apprenticeship
Bakers work in one of the largest, most dynamic and fastest growing sectors of the food and drink industry. As an Industry there is a desperate need for more Experienced, Qualified and Commercially driven Bakers.
Every day bakers make and sell millions of loaves of bread and baked goods, such as cakes, pies, pastries and biscuits to customers in the UK and around the world.
Lead Bakers will be able to not only produce a wide range of both simple and complex bakery products such as sour dough, complex pastry and buscuit products, fried products, cakes and sponge products. Lead Bakers will be able to supervise and demonstrate the skills required to other members of the workforce. They will learn how to organise and implement all aspects of a commercial bakery from start to finish, including: Ingredient sourcing, production planning, creating, baking, finishing, packaging and delivery to the customer.
In addition to the core bakery skills and knowledge apprentices will also complete one of the following specialist pathways based on their job role;
- Craft
- Plant
Lead Bakers will learn how to:
- Prepare complex bakery products for customer/consumers, including packaging and labelling of bakery products meeting current legislation.
- Be able to order & organise material/stock control for bakery production for bakery ingredients, packaging, labels and delivery methods
- Able to organise, supervise and oversee the site, maintaining a clean and effective bakery production environment.
- Complete & supervise bakery documentation and records - paper-based or electronic. For example, legal and process compliance checks, hygiene records, weights and production reporting. Being able to demonstrate and display according to the business need.
- Supervise and manage the resolving of issues, making improvements to bakery products/production.
- Produce bread products to specification, including New product development and new market opportunities.
- Produce pastries and confectionery to specification, , including New product development and new market opportunities.
- Amend recipes to meet customer bakery production requirements.
- How to supervise and control colleagues to safely work machinery, such as power mixers, industrial ovens and production lines
Course details
| Dates & Location | Next cohort preboarding and enrolment commences in January with college delivery from February 2025. |
|---|---|
| Duration | Typically 24 months (some apprentices could complete sooner depending on their previous experience and qualifications, their perfomance during the apprenticeship and the opportunity to develop their skills and knowledge in the workplace) |
| Costs | Costs to the employer will be dependent on several factors such as age of apprentice and size (number of employees) of the business. Please contact our Business Services team on 01273 892127 for more information. An apprentice must not be asked to cover any associated training costs linked to their apprenticeship programme. |
Entry Requirements
To enrol onto an apprenticeship programme you need to be employed with a contract of employment. If you have an employer lined up or are already employed please contact our Business Services team on 01273 892127 or via email.
You must be in a role that will allow you the opportunity to develop the necessary skills, knowledge and behaviours of the apprenticeship. Additionally, apprentices must have a working level of maths and English that will allow successful achievement of level 2 functional skill prior to the end point assessment.
Prior to enrolment potential apprentices will be required to complete;
- Maths and English assessment
- Existing skills, knowledge and behaviour assessment
If you do not currently have an employer please visit the main Apprenticeships page for guidance on how to find and apply for an apprenticeship opportunity or register for our Talent Bank service.
If you are an employer and would like to recruit or enrol an existing employee onto an apprenticeship please contact our Business Services team on 01273 892127 or via email.
Facilities
State-of-the-art bakery training kitchens housed in the college's new AgriFood Centre.
Future Opportunities
The baking industry offers many ongoing career development opportunities to suit the particular interests of the apprentice, whether they aspire to being a manager of the future, a specialist baker, bakery product designer or retail bakery expert.
